Here's an editorial cartoon about global warming, from a young artist… …who notes that countless species are migrating northward to survive. But Stephanie McMillan is right on another count, too: Climate change is coming to Canada, and could cost as much as $5 billion a year by 2020, and 20-42 billion by 2050, accordingContinue reading “Climate change in Canada: the funny version”
Author Archives: Kit Stolz
Bert Collins: I paint every day
Had the pleasure this weekend of interviewing one of my favorite artists, Bert Collins, and writing about her for the Star. Here's my lead (or "lede," to use the newspaper spelling): Admirers of pastel artist Alberta "Bert" Collins began lining up outside her Ojai studio at 5:30 on Saturday morning, eager to buy one of theContinue reading “Bert Collins: I paint every day”
Texas drought: “Years before the cows come home”
Today reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske took a potentially mundane story about how the drought in Texas is changing the traditional cattle business and wrote her way on to the front page of the Sunday Los Angeles Times with her boldness: The cowboys rose well before dawn, stars still high in the West Texas sky. They strapped onContinue reading “Texas drought: “Years before the cows come home””
What we have over-run and on which we rely
Here's a lovely profile of a poet new to me, Kim Stafford, from High Country News' Uncommon Westerners features series. The writer finds Stafford in a coffee shop in Portland. Nearby, writes Tara Rae Miner, is "a strip of untamed land, bounded by busy roads in a dense, urban landscape. It is not a park,Continue reading “What we have over-run and on which we rely”
Brad Pitt to win Best Actor
Reviewing Moneyball for The New Yorker, David Denby declares that Brad Pitt should win Best Actor — for The Tree of Life. He's right about that, and he describes Pitt's performance well: …in Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life,” in which he plays a father who takes out his disappointments on his sons, his anger is self-woundingContinue reading “Brad Pitt to win Best Actor”
Whales, algae cross melting Arctic for first time in eons
First this year, in June, came the algae: A single-celled alga that went extinct in the North Atlantic Ocean about 800,000 years ago has returned after drifting from the Pacific through the Arctic thanks to melting polar ice. And while its appearance marks the first trans-Arctic migration in modern times, scientists say it signals somethingContinue reading “Whales, algae cross melting Arctic for first time in eons”
A Wilco riff that just won’t quit — for good reason
Wilco's new album, The Whole Love, concludes with a song unlike any I've ever heard from a Jeff Tweedy band. It's twelve minutes long, but not for the sake of a guitar freak-out (Poor Places). Nor does it want to pound home a point, or feeling (Misunderstood). A critic from Aquarium Drunkard describes it eloquently: Continue reading “A Wilco riff that just won’t quit — for good reason”
Birds, otters and whales: a week in the SoCal Bight
Had a busy week last week covering the ocean (by chance) for the Ventura County Star, I'm happy to say. On otters: fishermen not happy with prospect of being regulated by endangered species laws. On whales: CA air regulations may have saved whales from collisions with ships, but that could end. On birds: On theContinue reading “Birds, otters and whales: a week in the SoCal Bight”
Stephen Colbert knows America on global warming
"Speaking of not knowing what to do — global warming!" Yours truly is not a big fan of the modern-day kings of irony, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, but this segment on global warming, despite the slightly confusing opening, is hilarious…and, actually, quite insightful about the American public's reaction to the threat of global warming.Continue reading “Stephen Colbert knows America on global warming”
Wangari Maathai, rest in peace
The great tree-planter and feminist, Wangari Maathai, Nobel Prize winner, died yesterday. We were fortunate enough to see her speak a few years ago, and I was frankly awed by her ability to find simple, enduring truths in complicated, desperate situations. Even today, speaking about the unhappiness of development in Kenya, her words resonate withContinue reading “Wangari Maathai, rest in peace”
Kit Stolz 